William Robbins, the younger, of Bilston married Priscilla Jevon on or just after 31 Aug 1624. There is no Parish register record of the marriage but evidence of the Marriage Bond and dowry negotiation between Richard Jevon and William Robbins the older has survived.
Priscilla Jevon would appear to be mentioned in her grandfather Richard Jevon‘s will in 1621. It must be her father, also Richard Jevon who stumps up the very large sum of £500 for the bond. This places the well established Robbins family of Bilston in union with the wealthy family of Richard Jevon of Sedgley Hall.
It becomes clear from the PCC will of a William Robbins in 1670 that he is William’s oldest son. In the absence of any will surviving from William himself, this is the next best source to understand the family of William.
William (III) had no children and that is why we get a comprehensive list of his siblings. It would seem that William II married twice – first to Priscilla Jevon by whom he had four surviving children viz Margaret, William, Mary and Priscilla. She died and is buried on 5 Sep 1634. William must then have married Anne Gibbins (nee Persehouse) and had two further children – Thomas and John.
William (III) significantly names his sister as Mary Linton that identifies the marriage registered in Nov 1654 in St Peter’s Collegiate Church in Wolverhampton between Thomas Linton and Mary Robbins. This gives us the descent through Joseph Linton to Edward Cheshire.
A whole slew of Robbins family documents and transactions have survived and are held in Stafford. One of the documents makes it clear that william (III) is not the full brother but only the half brother of Thomas. This is not immediately clear from the will. But the three sisters Margaret Whitehouse, Mary Linton and Priscilla Lowe are all products of the first marriage to Priscilla Jevon. It is the two other brothers Thomas and John who have Ann Persehouse as a mother.
The key phrase in the will is when William (III) appoints his brother in law William Gibbins as Executor of the will. William Robbins (III) appears not to be married and all his sisters are accounted for. William Gibbins logically is therefore the son of his step mother, son of Thomas Gibbins who had died in 1637. Hence he is a brother-in-law. William Gibbins and William Robbins were of a similar age born in the early 1630s and, we presume, largely brought up in the same household. ‘Their mother’, Ann Persehouse/Gibbins/Robbins died and is buried in St Peter’s on 20 Oct 1668.
William Robbins himself was buried in St Peter’s Collegiate Church on 23 Apr 1655.
Sources and Notes
- Will of William Robbins, written 26 Oct 1668, PCC Probate 1 Jun 1670 (oldest son)
- Staffordshire County Record Office (NA D1798/666/6 and others from Solicitors Hand Morgan and Owen Clients’ Papers)
- Agreement between William Robins of Bilston and Thomas Robins his half-brother re the disposal of £150 charged on lands in Wednesfield and Nechells. Copyhold of the manor and deanery of Wolverhampton – Date 1668
- Richard Jevon (1582-1647), Priscilla’s father, had a significant relationship with the Fifth Baron, Lord Dudley – not least he was owed a large sum of money by the Lord. Although this relationship seems closer than that of his father, it is much more obscure. It is not clear why such a large marriage bond was obtained.